Higher Education Webcasts

Prose and Purpose

Though it is difficult to demonstrate, even in the era of outcomes assessment, we all strive to provide an education that enhances integrity, civility, and compassion. For years, many of us have emphasized that increased education makes us better parents, citizens, and voters. And yet, today’s environment in the United States seems to be moving us in the opposite direction. We appear to be less enlightened and less civil. A mosque and community center near ground zero is challenged because the sins of a few radicals have been used to try and tarnish an entire faith.

Parking on a University campus is always a passionate issue. In many cases, the issue is the number of sports; in other cases it is the quality of spots. There is a magnetic attraction — for faculty, students, staff and administration — to a parking spot adjacent to the building that one will be in. And there is a priority order in place at many colleges and universities regarding who can park where.

Earlier today, a dean came to see me regarding the future of a faculty member. This faculty member came to Hofstra with outstanding graduate school credentials and is an outstanding teacher. This person also has a much sought after area of specialty and has been very active in University service. At this point in time, the faculty member is getting ready to stand for tenure and the dean voiced a concern that the faculty member did not yet have sufficient scholarship to stand successfully. At the end of the day, the standards for tenure are the standards for tenure.

Most colleges and universities are on the two semester system – a fall and spring semester plus various sessions in January and in the summer. When these semesters start, end, and have breaks is much less consistent. And especially when the calendar is tied to religious holidays, you are subject to great variation.

We are wrapping up the third summer session on campus. We have three summer sessions and we also have a very active and heavily enrolled day camp which helps utilize our facilities during a time when there are fewer students on campus. In addition to there being fewer students there are also fewer faculty, and summer classes which are typically held early in the day or in the evening tend to leave afternoons free of classes and also unfortunately free of faculty and students on campus.

I have been spending the last few days reviewing my tenure and promotion recommendations to the President. Each tenure and promotion candidacy has a file that has multiple recommendations, starting at the department level after the candidate has presented his or her tenure/promotion portfolio. Once that portfolio is prepared and submitted, the candidacy is reviewed and a recommendation is provided by the department chair, and the Ad Hoc Tenure Committee or the Promotion Committee.

Hurricane Katrina helped convince much of higher education that there is a tremendous need for emergency planning. And many of us developed sophisticated plans to do what we need to do if an emergency strikes — resume full operation or get as close to that as possible, and do it in the least possible time. But what has happened to those plans since then and how prepared are we?

Within the last two weeks, I have taken my older daughter to see Eclipse in IMAX as well as Toy Story 3, Despicable Me, and The Last Airbender all in 3D. You haven’t “lived” until you have seen vampires and werewolves in IMAX, and 3D makes animation more fun and people and events more real. Having first seen Avatar in 2D and then subsequently in 3D, the difference for me is very much worth the difference in price. And yet, of the five films I have mentioned above, 2 were excellent, two were good, and one was fair. IMAX and 3D enhance but can’t overcome a weak story line.

After I completed my PhD and accepted my first tenure track full-time teaching appointment, I was assigned a faculty office that I shared with three other full-time faculty. I was on campus usually four days a week but I hated the office even though I liked my office mates. Trying to talk with students and trying to grade exams, or trying to do research was seriously and negatively impacted. It is impossible to talk to students about their future plans and ambitions, about courses they needed to meet requirements and graduate, and about economics.